The activity in Lebanon’s real estate (RE) sector in the first quarter of 2018 slowed down after recording marginal improvements in performance in the first two months.
According to the data from the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (LRC), the number of RE transactions which may include one or more realties, reached 14,181 transactions by March 2018, down from 17,081 in Q1 of 2017. In its turn, the value of total RE transactions stood at $2.01B, also contracting by 14.03% year-on-year (y-o-y). Nonetheless, the average value per transaction rose from $136,975 in Q1 2017 to $141,845 in the same period this year.
In addition, foreigners executed 273 transactions of the total in Q1 2018 compared to 282 in Q1 2017. Meanwhile, the foreigners’ share in Q1 2018 accounted for 1.93% of total real estate transactions, up from 1.65% in Q1 last year.
As for the regional breakdown, Beirut grasped the largest share of the total value of real estate transactions with a share of 28.11% (worth $565.4M) in Q1 2018, followed by Baabda and Kesrouan with shares of 19.11% (worth $384.5M) and 16.33% (worth $328.4M), respectively.
In terms of the number of RE transactions executed, Baabda ranked first grasping 2,823 transactions (equivalent to 19.91% of the total) in Q1 2018. Total North and Zahle followed, with stakes of 16.32% and 13.32% of total transactions, respectively, over the same period.
Total Number of Real Estate Transactions in Q1
Source: LRC